Hydraulic systems can have ‘compensation losses’ associated with attempting to establish flow control to multiple functions that are experiencing different loads in a system. An example of this is a conventional load sensing system that sets the hydraulic supply pressure according to the highest sensed load pressure. Excess hydraulic pressure is supplied to the other functions experiencing lesser load pressure, which wastes power and fuel. One of the most common attempts to eliminate compensation losses in a hydraulic system is to eliminate the control valve and use hydrostatic pumps to control some functions, for example the boom of a wheel loader.
It would be desirable to have a hydraulic system that had one or more of the following capabilities: the capability to direct flow from multiple hydraulic sources to multiple functions and share the flow in selectable ratios between the sources and functions; the capability to direct flow from one hydraulic supply to one function while directing flow from a second hydraulic supply to a second function; and the capability to, in the case of a failure, make use of the remaining components to continue to supply hydraulic fluid to each of the functions.